Access UI weirdness -- text selection permanently on

[prn]

Hi folks,

Sometime in the last few days, I must have accidentally done something that changed some kind of switch in Access, but I can't seem to find what it was.
This is Access 2003 under XP, BTW.

Currently, when I'm editing any kind of textual material within Access, e.g. a SQL statement or something in the Properties for a GUI element, I find that whenever I move the text cursor within that text, it selects (inverts) the text between the old position and the new. For example, if I want to change the name of a textbox from, say, tbxOldName to tbxNewName, I would expect to click my mouse between the "x" and the "O" and edit from there, but when I do that, all the text of "OldName" turns into reverse video and is selected so when I type the "N" for "NewName" everything following the "tbx" disappears. Any click within text selects (generally from the clicked point to the end of the text). This wouldn't be so bad for something this simple, but it does get to be a drag if I'm trying to edit a relatively more complex SELECT statement for, e.g. a row source or the like. The same thing happens when editing a SQL statement in the query designer in SQL view. I do find an interesting and possibly illuminating quirk there, though. If Access positions the cursor somewhere other than at the end of the statement (e.g., at a syntax error ;) ) then no text is "selected" but the text cursor is somewhere in the middle of the SQL statement. If, however, I move the cursor, either with the arrow keys or by clicking with the mouse, then all the text between the location where Access positioned it and the new location gets selected.

Whatever the problem is, it also means that when I try to change the tab order in a form and click on a control in the tab-order list, all of the controls above the one I click on are selected. Furthermore, when I try to drag the selected control(s), they don't move in the tab-order dialog, the only effect is to select the controls that I try to drag them over.

This is definitely an Access problem. All other applications continue to behave normally.

I have looked at Tools>Options and at the menu structure in general and I can't seem to locate an option that might have been changed, but I suppose I could have missed something. So far, I've been able to work around this strange behavior, but copying any complex text into Notepad, editing it there and pasting it back into Access is not really right.

Has anyone seen anything like this before? Has anyone fixed anything like this before? It's weird!

Any clues gratefully accepted.

Thanks,
Paul

[dima69]

Hi folks,

Sometime in the last few days, I must have accidentally done something that changed some kind of switch in Access, but I can't seem to find what it was.
This is Access 2003 under XP, BTW.

Currently, when I'm editing any kind of textual material within Access, e.g. a SQL statement or something in the Properties for a GUI element, I find that whenever I move the text cursor within that text, it selects (inverts) the text between the old position and the new. For example, if I want to change the name of a textbox from, say, tbxOldName to tbxNewName, I would expect to click my mouse between the "x" and the "O" and edit from there, but when I do that, all the text of "OldName" turns into reverse video and is selected so when I type the "N" for "NewName" everything following the "tbx" disappears. Any click within text selects (generally from the clicked point to the end of the text). This wouldn't be so bad for something this simple, but it does get to be a drag if I'm trying to edit a relatively more complex SELECT statement for, e.g. a row source or the like. The same thing happens when editing a SQL statement in the query designer in SQL view. I do find an interesting and possibly illuminating quirk there, though. If Access positions the cursor somewhere other than at the end of the statement (e.g., at a syntax error ;) ) then no text is "selected" but the text cursor is somewhere in the middle of the SQL statement. If, however, I move the cursor, either with the arrow keys or by clicking with the mouse, then all the text between the location where Access positioned it and the new location gets selected.

Whatever the problem is, it also means that when I try to change the tab order in a form and click on a control in the tab-order list, all of the controls above the one I click on are selected. Furthermore, when I try to drag the selected control(s), they don't move in the tab-order dialog, the only effect is to select the controls that I try to drag them over.

This is definitely an Access problem. All other applications continue to behave normally.

I have looked at Tools>Options and at the menu structure in general and I can't seem to locate an option that might have been changed, but I suppose I could have missed something. So far, I've been able to work around this strange behavior, but copying any complex text into Notepad, editing it there and pasting it back into Access is not really right.

Has anyone seen anything like this before? Has anyone fixed anything like this before? It's weird!

Any clues gratefully accepted.

Thanks,
Paul

Well, I don't know why Access acts that weird way you describe here. Maybe F2 key that changes selection type can assist.

[prn]

Thanks, dima69. That wasn't it, but I'm prepared to try almost anything.

Anybody have any other ideas?

Thanks,
Paul

[Denburt]

I can confirm this but although I am still trying to pin it down since it seems to come and go. The only tie I have found so far is maybe a sticky keys issue, but I have not found a way to make this change it's behavior other than a reboot. It usually happens to me when I have way to many things open and I am deep in thought about something.

I would test it out right now but I have so much that needs to get done I will try and get back here if I manage to replicate it.

[prn]

Well, doggone! I should have taken Denburt's advice even before he gave it! ;)

Of course, I always have too many windows open and all the other usual problems, but a reboot is always the first thing any Microsoft user ought to try. Good call, Denburt!

I still have no idea what happened or whether there is any deeper knowledge to be gained here, but a reboot seems to have cleared it up for now.

Thanks!
Paul

[missinglinq]

Sad to say, Windows systems multi-task much better than human brains!

[Denburt]

Sad to say, Windows systems multi-task much better than human brains!

I so agree... I still think this issue revolves around those dmn sticky keys but they never do what i want, when I want, can't seem to figure them out but they sure love to screw with me..

Glad your rollin let us know if theres anything else ya need.

[elrusius]

I don't know what causes this problem, but I found sort of a solution. When such thing happens, I go in query design, closing the "Sow Table" dialogue and put some false params in the criteria line, for example "and test()". I move the cursor to another field and error dialogue appears saying "the expression you entered contains invalid syntax". I press OK, and that does it for me, I can normally position my cursor anywhere without selecting anything. Hope this helps.